SFC Athlone v Tyrellspass

posted 16 May 2016, 12:56 by Athlone GAA

SFC Sec B

Athlone 2-10 Tyrrellspass
1-10

Athlone earned their second win of this year’s Senior
Championship with a thrilling victory in an occasionally controversial clash with
Tyrrellspass in Rochfortbridge on Saturday evening.Despite several setbacks, including John
Connellan being forced to cry off through injury shortly before the start,
losing Stephen Ward to a red card with 20 minutes still to play and the
concession of an extremely contentious goal, underdogs Athlone showed great character
and skill to record their first Championship victory over the men from the Tidy
Village in quite some time.

Athlone began brightly and opened the scoring with a
superb point from John Stapleton.Tyrrellspass responded with a Ger Egan free, but two points in rapid
succession from Paul Bannon and Ray Connellan had Athlone back in front.Tyrrellspass replied again to half the
deficit, before Athlone enjoyed their best spell of the match as frees from
Noel Mulligan and Ray Connellan, followed by points from play from John Egan
and Stephen Ward (both after excellent patient moves) extended the lead to five
points.Tyrellspass struck back with a
point to stay in touch, but Athlone got a huge boost as the match entered first
half stoppage time when Ray Connellan was pulled back in the square and Jordan
Marshment powered the resultant penalty past the keeper for the game’s opening
goal.There was still time for
Tyrrellspass to pull back a point from a free, but Athlone were happy to go in
at the break with a six point lead, 1-7 to 0-4.

As expected, Tyrrellspass started the second period
strongly and two points from play reduced the gap to four.John Egan opened Athlone’s second half
account with a fine point after another superb move, but Tyrrellspass answered
this with a free of their own, before the first major controversy of the game occurred
when John Egan appeared to be foot-tripped as he brought the ball out of
defence.Virtually the whole ground
stopped in expectation of a whistle, but, when none was forthcoming, Denis
Glennon reacted quickest to snaffle possession and set up his brother David to
bundle the ball over the line to leave just a point between the sides.The Athlone team were incensed by this turn
of events but responded well when a surging Stephen Ward run lead to him being
pulled down on the edge of the square.However what looked like being a straightforward point for Athlone
turned into another disaster when, following a melee after the foul, Ward
received a straight red card and the original award of a free was changed to a
throw-up, which Tyrrellspass won to relieve the pressure.

After these two setbacks, and especially against a side
of Tyrrellspass’s quality, Athlone might’ve been expected to fold, but they
refused to buckle and continued to take the game to their opponents.They got their reward for their attacking
approach when Jordan Marshment was judged to be impeded in the square as he
contested a high ball, and he showed great coolness to pick himself up and
confidently dispatch his second penalty of the game low into the left corner to
put some daylight between the sides again.Athlone were showing no signs of their numerical disadvantage and
stretched their lead even with further with two Ray Connellan frees, after full-backs
Fergal Murray and Damo Kelly, both of whom had done an excellent job of
containing the dangerous Glennon brothers, were fouled as they counter-attacked
deep in opposition territory.

This left Athlone leading by six points, 2-10 to 1-7 as
the game entered its closing 10 minutes, but any hopes the Athlone support had
of the game just petering out were dashed as Tyrresllpass chipped away at the
Shannonsiders’ lead with three points from play to leave just a goal between
them as the game entered injury time, of which there were several minutes to be
played because of the earlier incidents.Athlone negotiated the first two minutes of added time relatively
comfortably, but after a period of keep ball, lost possession on half-way,
which led to county star Ger Egan bearing down on goal.Fortunately his rasping shot came back of the
crossbar, but the drama wasn’t over as a follow-up shot was half-blocked,which led to the ball finding its way into
the small square, where Conor Devaney did well to smother a close range
effort.A goalmouth scramble, which
seemed to last an eternity and involve the entire Athlone team lining the goal,
eventually ended when Fergal Murray emerged from the ruck with possession as
the final whistle went, much to the delight of the entire Athlone contingent
present.